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Chesswood Junior School

Chesswood Junior School

Governor Structure and Annual Plan

Introduction

This page provides governors and the school community with information about the organisation of governance at Chesswood Junior School, including the meeting dates for the forthcoming years; the meeting types with guiding content. Additionally, portfolios are allocated to governors annually - governor allocations are included here for reference. Further guidance is included on governor constitution for transparency.

Guide

Link

The governor annual plan to the foundation document providing guidance to all governors in relation to structure, meeting arrangements, information flow and planned meeting dates.

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Instrument of Government

The school’s IoG, which must be drafted by the governing board and made by the local authority (if they are content that it complies with the applicable law)9, will specify the structure of the governing board. The IoG is a legal document which records the constitution of the governing board, including the term of office for each governor and the name of the school

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School

National Guidance

 

School

 

National Guidance

Governor Portfolios

Seeking to match interest and expertise, governors are allocated groups of school leadership areas. Areas are groups to align areas of leadership that are complimentary e.g. Core leadership - finance, personnel; administration; Pedagogy and performance - teaching, curriculum, assessment and achievement.

The document opposite identifies which areas are allocated and overseen by which governors. The document includes the accountable governor i.e. the governor expected to assimilate and report to the board and any external agency e.g. Ofsted. Responsible governors will report to the accountable governor and will develop expertise within one or more areas within the group.

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Governor Constitution

This is statutory guidance from the Department for Education. This means that governing bodies (including governing bodies of federations) and local authorities must have regard to it when carrying out certain functions relating to the constitution of governing bodies in maintained schools. There is some overlap with Departmental advice set out in the Governance Handbook (as amended from time to time). This guidance is about the constitution of governing bodies and their size, membership and skills. It also explains the arrangements for the constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools constituted under the School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012.

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Our Structure

Governance at Chesswood is based on a connected rather than discrete structure (sub committee). The benefits of this model are significant and include:

  • Timely discussion and decision making
  • Collective understanding
  • Sustainability and succession (business continuity)
  • Appreciation of the connected nature of school leadership e.g. adjustments to behaviour policy may impact on finance, achievement and safeguarding.

On that basis, there are no specific committees to discuss management issues in isolation. Instead, all governors attend all meetings and gain an understanding of the inter-connected nature of school business. To ensure that workload for governors is reasonable and realistic, governors are allocated ‘special interest areas’ that they should make every effort to develop a deeper and broader understanding of school practice i.e. undertake quality assurance or ‘fact finding’ visits; request & read school documentation and external documentation to support expertise within given areas.

 

Planned Governor Meetings

Please note this information is updated periodically and in response to arising circumstances meetings may be adjusted or cancelled without updating this page. Governors will be made aware of any adjustments or cancellations directly.

Autumn

Spring

Summer